The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Geranium plant, botanically known as Geranium hybrid, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Blushing Turtle’.
The new Geranium plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, Canada. The objective of the breeding program is to create new repeat flowering Geranium plants with large flowers and drought tolerance.
The new Geranium plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor during the summer of 1999 in Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, Canada of a unnamed seedling selection of Geranium sanguineum, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with either Geranium×oxonianum ‘Julie Brennan’, not patented, or an unnamed selection of Geranium asphodeloides, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. Pollen from both Geranium×oxonianum ‘Julie Brennan’ and an unnamed selection of Geranium asphodeloides was collected and used to cross-pollinate the unnamed seedling selection of Geranium sanguineum. The new Geranium plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, Canada in May, 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new Geranium plant by cuttings in a controlled environment in Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, Canada since March, 2003, has shown that the unique features of this new Geranium plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.